Tim Marshall

Diplomatic Editor

This week's outbreak of sectarian racist violence in Burma is a reminder that the cliched view of the Burmese as a freedom loving, peaceful people living under the yoke of a fascist dictatorship is not entirely accurate.

Yes, the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi has been mostly peaceful. Yes, we did see thousands of smiling, calm, saffron-robed Buddhist monks taking to the streets, and no, most ordinary Burmese do not set about their neighbours with knifes, and their neighbours' homes with petrol bombs.

But some do. Some of them even wear saffron robes while they do it.

The most recent attempt at cleansing an ethnic group began in Meiktila, 340 miles north of Rangoon. They then spread south as close as 125 miles from the country's biggest city, where Muslim-owned shops are beginning to close in case of violence.

Curfews have been declared in three more towns as attacks by crowds of Buddhists on Muslims have come closer to Rangoon.

Image Caption:Children sit in tents amid riots in Meiktila

Several mosques have been burned, along with dozens of houses. At least 40 people have been murdered; at least 12,000 have fled their homes.

The communal violence is the worst since last year's clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine which left 200 people from the Rohingya communities dead and 100,000 displaced.

The Rakhine violence was naked racism allegedly supported by the state. The Burmese junta does not recognise the 750,000 Rohingya as Burmese, saying they are Bengali even though they have lived in Burma for hundreds of years.

In this definition of nationality by blood, large sections of the population agree.

Image Caption:Aung San Suu Kyi at a parade on Wednesday for Armed Foces Day

Amid all the cries for freedom, justice, democracy, few of the activists lauded by visiting journalists bother themselves with minority rights, especially the minority rights of Muslims, and at the bottom of the list of things to care about appears to be the minority Rohingya Muslims.

There is an argument that decades of fascist rule has done this to the mindset of the Burmese, and the brutality of the regime undoubtedly brutalises a society, but that does not explain the anti-Chinese rioting of the 1960s and 70s, nor the commonly heard phrase among those of a nationalist bent that: "'To be Burmese is to be Buddhist."

The western media's darling, Aung San Suu Kyi, has not risked overtly speaking out against the ingrained racism prevalent in parts of society.

Her recent comment that she had a "soft spot" for the army went down very badly with the long suffering Christians, and especially badly among the Kachin minority groups in general.

I have yet to hear "The Lady" use the words Kachin or Rohingya in English. It may well be that she is biding her time, hoping to be the power behind the throne of whichever party eventually succeeds the junta, and then moving to safeguard rights, but she has raised suspicions among the countries minorities.

This week, she appeared alongside the military top brass at the annual Armed Forces Day parade. She understands the necessity of compromise in politics. In Meiktla and Rakhine they are hoping that compromise does not extend too far.